I know my Bible

At least, it took me 4 times to finally pass the standardized Bible Content exam that Covenant Seminary requires us to take. So now, I can confiidently say that “I know my Bible,” because I know that ‘Ebal‘ is actually a mountain instead of a river.

In all seriousness, I am thankful. This was my last attempt to pass the exam. If I hadn’t, then I would have to take two additional classes to compensate for it, which would have kept us in seminary for 1 extra year in the long-run. Our on-campus rent is $900/month, so you do the math. I would much rather take my time in seminary and really process this stuff, but the finances make that virtually impossible. Plus, I missed it the previous time by only two questions, so me, my wife and 2.5 year old daughter Maya prayed that I would pass it by at least 2. Lo and behold, I made it by 2 points exactly. God’s got a sense of humor in how he works things out.

Much thanks to Steve Whitney and his sight. It came in very handy in preparing over the summer, and will probably return to it as I prepare for ordination after seminary.

Just wanted to share some good news.

New Tim Keller book

Really looking forward to the new Tim Keller book coming out. Steve McCoy has a post up with the Title and table of Contents. Its called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Click here to check out Steve’s post on it. Here’s the contents:

Introduction – All doubts are leaps of faith

PART 1 – The Leap of Doubt

1. There can’t be just one true religion

2. A good God could not allow suffering

3. Christianity is a straitjacket

4. The church is responsible for so much injustice

5. A loving God would not send people to hell

6. Science has disproved Christianity

7. You can’t take the Bible literally

Intermission

PART 2 – The Grounds for Faith

8. The clues of God

9. The knowledge of God

10. The problem of sin

11. Religion and the gospel

12. The (true) story of the cross

13. The reality of the resurrection

14. The Dance of God

Epilogue – Where do we go from here?

Baptism Conversations

Well, it seems that this is becoming and interesting conversation to have and read up on in the world of blogs. It seems that everyone is at least mentioning it. Since this has been something I’ve been in process on, I figured I’d quote a great comment, and then reference some of the good interactions being had right now. This is from Abraham Piper (not pictured) over at Desiring God blog:

What does this mean for those who are wrong about baptism? It means just that—they’re wrong. But being wrong and being an unrepentant sinner are not the same. If they were, everybody with an imperfect theology (all of us) would be lost…Unless we are willing to say that paedobaptists [My remarks - or creedobaptists for that matter] are probably going to hell, then they are—according to Christ—already members in our fellowship, his church. What’s left for us is to acknowledge this. And then to trust Jesus to show himself to his one bride.

Here are the rest of the links, enjoy! Would love to hear what you all have to say on this.

Justin Taylor has “Grudem’s Change of Mind Regarding Differences on Baptism Within a Local Church” at Between Two Worlds

John Piper’s response to his friend Wayne Grudem at Desiring God blog.

Ligon Duncan chiming in on “Why Presbyterians Baptize Believer’s and Their Children” at Reformation 21 blog.

Mark Dever on the Piper/Grudem Baptism Exchange at 9 Marks.

A very interesting and thoughtful post by Abraham Piper (who I quoted above) over at Desiring God blog.

New books – Driscoll, Keller, Piper – Oh My!

Some interesting new books are about to come out – some by John Piper (of course), but also some new stuff by Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll. I’m most excited about Keller’s book, but probably only because he really only has 1 previous book that’s out there. Its a great one and on my Top 10 list (check it out on Amazon: Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road. But his new book has been highly anticipated by me. Here’s a link to the info on his new one at Amazon.

John Piper’s book(s) look very good as well. It’s entitled The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright and it looks quite interesting. This is a popular and controversial topic if you haven’t guessed, and most of the interaction on N.T. Wright has been done on either a high academic playing field, or simple dismissal without any really helpful evaluation. John Piper tends to bring alot of strength in making heavy things digestible and understandable, so this is shaping up to be a must read for me.

I have also really appreciated Mark Driscoll’s books. I have found both of them to be extremely challenging and enjoyable at the same time. It looks like he’s got two books coming out real soon. One of them seems to be a collection of the topics covered at this years Desiring God Conference, as it shares the same title: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (note that it also has Tim Keller, John Piper, David Wells contributing to this, though I’m attributing it Mark Driscoll’s blurb). I have benefited from listening to the audio recordings of this conference, but the book edition would make a good addition to the book shelf. His other book looks interesting as well: Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions. Anyone who has listened to Driscoll, or read his other books, knows that Driscoll takes many things very seriously, and none more so than who Jesus is, what he has done and what that means for us today. I am always encouraged and challenged when I hear or read something by Driscoll. I am anticipating that this will be another good book to digest and mull over, especially as someone who wants to grow in portraying Jesus as not only real and true, but significant and important for our world today. This should prove helpful.